Chippokes Plantation State Park, VA

 September 21, 2020

  Today we drove from Shenandoah to Chippokes Plantation State Park on the way we saw this bridge 

don't know anything about it, I just thought it looked cool.  Today was a driving day.  Arrived in the afternoon at Chippokes Plantation State Park and set up camp.

A pull-thru site with picnic table, fire ring, and electric and water at the site.  Shower house was nice and had a laundry room with a lending/exchange library even with a couple of puzzles.  I did one 500 piece puzzle here and exchanged it for another to do in the future.

September 22,2020

Time to explore Colonial Williamsburg!  And to do that we need to cross the James River

 

which means a trip on the ferry (no charge)  It takes about 20 minutes to cross the river, the ferry holds about 35 cars at once.

CoVid concern had you stay in your car while you cross.

It was a beautiful day weather wise with blue skies, sunshine and temps about 70.  Here are the gardens behind the Wythe house in Colonial Williamsburg.  The area is not excluded from the rest of Williamsburg so townspeople could jog thru or walk thru without tickets.  It was very nice I recommend it if you're in the area.  Some areas were not open due to CoVid but still lots to see, we were roaming about the grounds for six hours.  Here are lots of pictures.

Here is a carpenter at work.  We also saw a silversmith, a cooper (container maker- barrels, buckets), a tin shop worker, cobbler (made shoes and other leather goods), weaver, wheelwright, lawyers, and townspeople who were at each site to chat with and organize for tours or keeping control of number of people in one place.

Picture of us waiting to tour the Capitol Building, no wait was longer than 10 minutes for anything.

The Capitol building,  well a replica apparently Virginia has a habit of burning state houses and the original one in Williamsburg burnt down.  Thomas Jefferson also moved the capitol to Richmond so it would be closer to his home so Williamsburg is no longer than capitol.

Inside the capitol building.  This half was the high court of Virginia, only members of the court passed the bar (terminology now used still to describe passing your law exams).  The only one who sat done was the Governor as he represented the king of England which led to additional terminology such as bystander (those there just to watch proceedings) witness stand (even the witnesses stood) and standing trial (yes even those on trial stood)

The Governor's Palace 

To make you feel that you are in the place of power, the front hall is filled with muskets, swords and the like, meant to be intimidating.

Here is a close up of the Powder Room, not where you powder your nose, but where you powder your wig.

The outside gardens at the palace.  They also had a maze of hedges and a loft area where you could climb up to watch those in the maze.

I was happy to be in the gardens.

After a long day of touring, we ate out at the Surry Seafood Company.  The served a delicious bowl of crab soup that came with a heaping scoop of crab on top.  The hush puppies came with honey butter, what's not to like?

The view from our table on the back deck.

September 23,2020

Today we left to tour Chippokes Plantation which is where we camped.  The couple camping next to us had called the Park Ranger office and set up a private tour of the River House and Mansion on the plantation and invited us along which was great.   Thanks Chris and Joe!

Chippokes Plantation is one of the oldest continuously farmed plantations in the country.  A working farm since 1619; that's 401 years of farming here.  So not surprising the first thing we came upon were farm animals.  Two donkeys, two goats, two pigs, a cow named Ruby, and some chickens.

Park signage with photo from 1928 and here is the house today

The River House.  Originally smaller and added onto by original builder who was the first owner to live on the plantation in 1837.  (Captain William Powell was original granted 500 acres here in 1619)

The living room with added on bathroom (the door in upper right corner).  The bathroom was put in between the two chimneys (see previous photo of it from outside shot of the house)

Center hallway with Kevin our tour guide and Chris our camping neighbor who arranged the tour.

The view of the grounds from the front window.  Small house you see was a tenant farmers residence.

In 1852 Albert Jones began to build a bigger house now called the Jones-Stewart Mansion. Here is a look inside that house furnished as it was in the 1960s when it was gifted to the Commonwealth of Virginia by Mrs Stewart noting that it should be kept as a working farm.

dining room (see me in the mirror?)

front parlor

crown moulding and ceiling medallion

Enough touring, time for some rest and relaxation

Taking our lunch down to the banks of the James River.

Setting up the hammocks for some afternoon reading.

Of course, only so much sitting can I take before I go walking down the beach.

The James River is tidal water which means it rises and falls with the tides.  Here are some trees in the water at high tide and former tree stumps on the beach.

That's all for now folks.  We gotta rest up for the next place.